Gresley class A1 (later class A3) No. 2579 Dick Turpin, built by the North British Locomotive Company (works no. 23117), entered traffic on 3 November 1924.

One of the forty LNER-ordered class A1 Pacifics that followed the original Great Northern batch, it was named after the notorious 18th-century highwayman rather than a racehorse – one of only a handful of exceptions to the class’s usual naming practice – and the plates were in place by February 1926.

Fitted with longer-travel valves in January 1929 and rebuilt to class A3 standard with the higher-pressure boiler in November 1942, it was renumbered to No. 80 in 1946 and became British Railways No. 60080. It was fitted with a double chimney in October 1959 and German-style smoke deflectors in November 1961, for nearly forty years it worked express passenger services on the East Coast Main Line and beyond, including the Flying Scotsman from King’s Cross in 1934 and, in its final years, turns such as the Glasgow St Enoch–London St Pancras via Carlisle.

Withdrawn in October 1964, it was subsequently scrapped, having outlasted most of its classmates.